using_technology_to_enhance_teachingfandomcom-20200214-history
Where?
Links to Pages Overview Who? What? Why? Where? How? Where are the resources needed to achieve the level of differentiation required for the new population of students in our classrooms? ''' Please use the following resources in the classroom, then please provide feedback about which work and which don't. The following resources are included to help each teacher bring a little extra technology to their classrooms, each link takes the user to a technology-based activity to use in their classroom. Not all resources are for all teachers of all subjects, but we have tried to be inclusive to all the major curricular areas affected by the upcoming switch. Our hope is that teachers add resources which worked in their classrooms to the collection so that a complete list of technology-based, classroom lessons and activities is available for use at any time. '''BLOG SITES Blogs are becoming HUGE '''in education, teachers can drop lecture transcripts as blog posts or keep parents up to date, manage late work due to student absence. Blogs are almost an essential part of the 21st Century classroom. Classroom Blogs can be student-centered and run by the students in each class. Students can run the Blog like a newspaper, taking on different roles to ensure the blog stays up to date and interesting. Sites like Edublog, WordPress, and Blogster make it easy for teachers to moderate a student populated classroom blog. '''FOCUS Focus keeps parents, and students in touch with the teachers, school, and district. Students and parents can access schedules, grades and a messaging system for instant contact with teachers and administration. PCS teachers know focus as the house for EVERYTHING. '''Attendance, grades, schedules, IEP/504/ELL information; they all live in Focus. it is suggested that each teacher in Middle and High Schools across the county take some time in the first weeks of school to review Focus with their students and that each school provide training for parents on how to use the LMS. Dunedin Highland Middle School provided this PowerPoint Presentation about Excellence during the first weeks of school. During this presentation, each teacher reviewed Focus with the students, explaining that keeping track of their progress is key to their academic success. '''YOUTUBE Students and teachers alike use YouTube in their daily lives, and Google would like to make it easier and more appealing for teachers to integrate their awesome Web 2.0 tool into their daily classroom curriculum. YouTube provides an endless amount of resources for teachers to use in their daily routine at all grade levels. No one does a better job at promoting YouTube than Google, check out the video below to see the many ways this tech giant is courting teachers. UNIQUE LEARNING SYSTEMS ULS is the go-to resource for ESE/Special Ed teachers in Pinellas County. The site differentiates all lessons to a variety of levels, and the embedded Symbol Styx program allows teachers to create lesson specific Picture Exchange Card System (PECS) images for their students who may rely on PECS for communication. Included are 3 ULS resources for the teacher to use in the inclusion classroom. We ask that before a teacher attempts to access ULS on their own, for Symbol Styx or N2Y they contact their school's ESE department for login credentials. The first 5 links provided are for PDF files of the same News2You article, Santa Paws, ''the article is differentiated to five different levels ensuring it is accessible to all students in the classroom. "Regular" level "Higher" level "Simplified" "Advanced" Text Only News2You is a cross-curricular program. Scrolling through the 65-page activity document, teachers will find activities for each curricular domain relating back to the original articles' topic. Symbol Styx Picture Exchange Card Systems (PECS), are used in a variety of ways, multiple times daily in the ESE classroom. In order for many of the students currently educated in a self-contained, Access Points environment, PECS will be the scaffold between what's presented in the General Education setting and what they can actually access and, thus, master. Again, this link will only fully work for the user once they have contacted their school's ESE department for the login credentials, as each school shares one account. Club Roo is a safe environment for teachers to let their students engage in tech-based play. Carefully curated games and stories are housed in Club-Roo, each selected with Special Edu students in mind. Teachers and parents can be assured that the games and stories included in Club Roo are intended to drive learning forward and enhance the learning occurring in the classroom. Located inside "Joey's Locker" on the News 2 You menu, Club Roo will require you to contact your school's ESE department to gain login credentials. '''KHAN ACADEMY' The district and teachers LOVE Khan Academy. Why? Because it works! Teachers across the district and country are using Khan in a variety of ways. Who's heard of the Khan-petition between DHMS and OMS? 7th-grade math students are competing to see which school can complete the most Kahn lessons during non-school hours. The stakes are high with OMS' principal set to wear a Highlander Kilt if his students fail to surpass their competition, and the DHMS principal bound to go full Seminole, headdress and all if that school's students fall short of the most completed lessons. These schools are setting the example of the many creative ways to get students engaged with Khan Academy; teachers are encouraged to consider creative ways they could integrate technology like Khan into their curriculum! EPIC BOOKS Epic is one of our FAVORITE resources! Teachers are encouraged to set themselves and their students up with a FREE account and get to reading! Teachers can assign tasks or allow students to explore the books on their own while the site reports the progress of each student back to the teacher. Epic allows students to engage in a traditional reading of their free books and also allows them to decide to listen to an audiobook reading of many of their provided titles. Get EPIC HERE and get to reading!! PERSONALIZED LEARNING PATHWAY (PLP) THIS! This resource, right here, has us screaming; '''WAY TO GO, PINELLAS COUNTY! '''The PLP is tailored to each student's academic needs as indicated by most recent FSA and Progress Monitoring data. This PCSB provided Web 2.0 tool sets each student on the path to academic achievement by linking each standard in which they are struggling to relevant technology-based lessons provided across a myriad of platforms. Teachers are encouraged to work with their students along the way by supporting in the creation of meaningful goals and providing the skills needed to track them. Each student in Pinellas County has a link to their PLP through their Focus and Clever home screens. Middle and high school teachers are encouraged to take a period a week to use the goal generator with their students and encourage them to work towards meeting the goals during the provided time. Help them to track progress and benchmark their achievements; these are skills they will use for a lifetime!